"Cable Modem vs. DSL"

These are the two main ways to access high speed connction. can anyone give me detail about the comparason between these two?
Though cable can afford more data to transfer than DSL line, but as more users share on the cable, the lower speed each user gets----I think this is one of disadvantages to use cable modem. And the other problem is safety. Because users share on a cable in a certain area, it's easier to hack other computers through the cable for a hacker if he is one of the users.

The biggiest difference between the two is with DSL you are not sharing your connection with others in yoiur neigborhood.
DSL is a straight pipe to your Telco Central office router.
With Cable you are on a dasiy chain loop with every one in the the neighborhood who has cable...
The more people on the slower you go..
Another issue is upload, what do you wnat to do with your connection, surf, if thats all cable is for you..., faster besides for the money anyway.
If you would like to host a game or run a game , mail or web server then you better go with DSL..

sir you are very wrong.

Please note that the bandwith for DSL is shared at the telco, and the cable where you are, if the telco does not have sufficient bandwith, or alot of people are on (this can get bad, because of the large area that one telco office covers) but cable has something like 3-6 blocks per "cell" wich can have 1 T1 up to 1 or 2 T3's (depending on the amount of subscribers.) It is the same thing, but if you are a hardcore gamer, I would recomend that you get DSL because you will sometimes get lower ping times. (Unless you will always play with someone that lives within the same "cell" that you do, in which case you have a very high speed network) But for the typical surfer, go with cablemodem. Here the install for DSL runs about $250 with $55 a month or for cable modem $50 install, 1st month free, and $35 or $40 per month.

If you get pissed at your DSL ISP, you can find another. If you get pissed at your cable ISP, you join all the other whiners ;)

For most users, there is not a large difference. Cable will have faster downloads (eg web pages appear faster), but not always.

You can pay (alot) more to get a higher upload bandwidth. If you are ever planning on running a server, go to a DSL ISP that provides static IP addresses.

Our cable company is charging a fortune to purchase and install the cable modem - with no guarantee of service. (No rental options of modem either).
Oddly, our telephone company cannot provide DSL to us because we are supposedly more tha the standard 3 mile radius to the central station - yet other resellers of DSL service tell us they can provide service to us. However, most of these DSL service providers mandate a 2 year contract with free installation, and will not allow web hosting. Despite the lingo of "Guaranteed service and download times" by these providers, I have read numerous reports that many people are having trouble with their DSL, and that DSL is affected by many extraneous things such as bad phone lines, lights, etc. Can anyone help us decide whether to go Cable vs DSL with a reseller, since our local phone company (PacBell) doesn't provide service? Are there so many problems with DSL?

It all boils down to consumer empowerment. I would personally go with DSL, even though it's not in my area yet. Until the local cable companies are deregulated and have their monopolies taken away, you can expect high prices when opting for cable-modem service. In my area (Atlanta) it would cost me $397.00 to have cable-modem service installed by MediaOne. That's just too high of a cost for me. Especially given the fact that if I want to fire them there are no other cable companies available in my area.
So I'm stuck with an expensive cable-modem I can't use.
On the other hand, unless you have special circumstances, you can fire your DSL provider and use the same equipment. To me the three most important factors are cost, availability, and support. If you can get a good balance between the three then I don't think it really matters which one you go with. Especially for personal home use.

Where did you get your price?? I am on MediaOne in Cobb County and I got my cable installed for free, they waived the $90 install fee last fall. Maybe Mediaone is not running that special now but 90 dollars is way off from 397.

Hi,
I have DSL through Earthlink. there was no installation fee and I am charged $29.00 a month.
I don't see many speeds posted on this board but I go from around 790k to 350 k and it's pretty consistent. How about some of the cable users post some speed test either from here or MSN at
http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest500.asp

How about some
>of the cable users post
>some speed test either from
>here or MSN at

I just ran the test using Adelphia@home in Santa Monica at 9 pm. RCA cable modem.

2650 Kbps or 324 K bytes/sec

I've had a lot faster and a lot slower.

i get a consistant 1200 to 1500 bps on cable

I can't say I want other ISP's mucking with my cablemodem system. I understand your point, but look what it did to DSL. Most of the big DSL providers are now using a crappy PPP-over-Ethernet scheme, which reduces performance and forces you to "dial up" to your ISP. Their marketing spins this abomination as "keeping the familiar dial-up experience for users".

I think the cable co has every right to be their own ISP. They had to finance the replacement of ALL their wiring. The phone company can't even say that. If another ISP (AOL for example) wants to get their slimy hands on cablemodem, they're welcome to set up a plant and start running their own cable lines.

Going with a different provider won't help if the problem is at the connectivity level anyway. I had to laugh at one of my friends who kept getting angry with his ISP and switched every other month. The only trouble was he kept going with UUNet-hosted ISPs, he was too dense to notice that he was dialing the same number!

The same applies here. If your DSL isn't performing well, you can change ISPs all you want, but you're still going through your telco's network. At least with cable (here in LA), they don't make you commit for a year. With DSL, they sign you up for a year, and god help you if it doesn't perform to expectation. That, to me, makes for poorer competition than having other ISPs available.

The problem with hackers, is the same with DSL, and Cable Modems, the share characteristics of CMs could be solved using tunnels, FW or others tools in the market, and a correct configuration in CMTS could also help to block intruders.

Fabio

My cable Connection is sweet. I have Mediaone/ RR service and it is pretty good. I mean I host online races all the time, and I haven't had many problems! I've had up to 30 on my connection racing at one time! Not too bad at all. Cable is better because, I pay $39.99/month for 1.5mb download/300k upload speed. Versus I would have to pay $99/month for DSL at only 144k donwload/144k upload!! Quite a difference!

I am from Houston, TX and have the Road Runner service. My installation was free and the service is $40 a month. I check my speeds at MSN regularly. My service has never dropped below 1 Mbps and is usually between 1.5 Mbps and 2 Mbps. Right now it is 5:30 PM here and at MSN my speed is 4.9 Mbps.

With Road Runner Cable my download speed is
1650 Kbits/sec to 1750 KBits/sec. Upload speed
is 260 KBits/sec to 275 KBits/sec.

You can check DSL or cable speed by going to
"DSL Reports" at http://www.dslreports.com/